You’re ready to dive into the job market. To help your search go swimmingly, you need a resume that cuts through the applicant pool and and gets you that interview! How do you make that happen?
With writing guides and resume examples for 300+ professions, Resume.io is here to help you get your job hunt off to a quick start and create a resume that makes a splash with athletic directors and hiring managers. This guide, along with the corresponding swimming coach resume example, will cover the following topics:
A swimming coach is a professional who coaches, guides and mentors swimmers under their instruction. Swim coaches can work for schools, athletic facilities or public or private organizations. They may work privately with individual athletes or small groups.
Swim coaches provide swimmers with helpful swimming techniques, game strategies and knowledge of swimming. They work to effectively communicate the rules, regulations and details of competitive swim, and they strive to impart a positive attitude and good sportsmanship on their athletes. Swimming coaches strive to help athletes enhance existing techniques and cultivate new ones.
They plan exercise and conditioning regimens, team practices, drills, contests and competitions. Coaches must be experts at safety and first aid techniques as well as stroke and breathing development. Swimming coaches work to meet both individual and team needs. They assess the performance levels of individual swimmers and help them to achieve personal goals. Swimming coaches aim to increase team morale, dedication, and overall athletic performance.
Becoming a certified swim coach
To earn certification with USA Swim, coaches must complete the following:
Many public school coaches are also certified teachers of physical education and health or another subject.
Looking to write a swimming coach resume that won't sink? Get more inspiration from our other Sport & Fitness resume examples:
Before you begin to compile your swim coach resume, you need to know what elements go into it. Your CV should contain the following components:
You plan a meet strategy by scouting the other team and taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of your own team. You should do the same when strategizing for your job hunt. Scout your target employer and find out the level and skill of the swimmers you will coach. Check out the environment and coaching philosophy as well.
Then, set a tone that meshes with that employer. Target your message as well by choosing examples and skills that show that you will be a great fit for the job.
Target the Applicant Tracking System
Applicant Tracking Systems, or ATS, are software programs that scan, sort and assess resumes for human resources departments. Most school systems use AppliTrack. The organizations you apply to are likely to use one of these systems to narrow the range of candidates to a manageable few.
There’s no guaranteed method of leaping this hurdle, but there are ways to improve your chances. This is where your research will help you. Review the listing, if there is one, and organically incorporate as many of the same nouns, verbs and modifiers in your resume text as possible.
We usually recommend reverse chronological order resume format because it is favored by recruiters and ATS software. That means that when you compile your employment history section, you start with your most recent position and move backwards in time.
This is your best bet unless you have special circumstances. If you are new to the job market, are changing careers or have been in the field a long time, consider one of our alternative resume formats.
Sports coaching overall is the second best education job, according to U.S. News and World Report. The median salary for coaches is $34,840.
The summary, also known as a profile, gets the recruiter excited about you by showing off your career accomplishments. Have you coached a championship swimmer? Taught someone who was afraid of the water to jump into the pool? These are the anecdotes you want to include in these 3-4 sentences.
Your goal here is to enhance the information you will provide in the rest of your resume. Try writing in your natural voice or the voice you use when you are encouraging your athletes. This will give the hiring manager insight into your style.
This may not be the first section a recruiter reads, although it sits at the top of your resume, but they will definitely pay attention to it if the rest of your resume resonates.
You can find a swimming coach resume sample summary below.
Highly skilled swimming coach with advanced training in swimming and sports leadership. Bringing forth a proven track record of guiding athletes to excel personally and competitively in an environment conducive to learning and skill building. Trained and experienced in curriculum and instruction, and proficient in utilizing powerful techniques to help athletes maximize their athletic performance levels. Bringing forth a personal athletic journey that has helped me to become an introspective and thoughtful instructor.
The employment history section of your swimming coach resume details your career up to now. Instead of writing sentences, use bullet items to describe your successes and highlights at each job, omitting extraneous words such as “In this position I …”. Instead, start with a strong action work and focus on a tangible outcome instead of a job duty.
Your resume should be no longer than two pages and should not go back more than 10 years unless absolutely necessary. If you have an outstanding achievement from earlier than that, you may choose to use it in your accompanying cover letter.
Get creative with your language. Try words such as “kick start,” “sprint” or “turnaround” to describe your coaching activities.
You can find a swimming coach employment history resume sample below.
The skills section of your swimming coach CV is the perfect spot to individualize for the ATS. Choosing the attributes your prospective employer seeks also shows that you understand what the particular job entails and that you have the skills to achieve.
Create a blend of the skills you have learned such as first aid, stroke technique and coaching strategy with the interpersonal soft skills that make athletes respond positively to you.
Here are Swimming World Magazine’s top swim coaching skills. Note that they are all soft skills:
You can find a skills resume sample below.
The education section of your swimming coach resume is a listing of your academic degrees. You may also include any certification and training, such as safety or CPR, you have completed.
Any honors or distinctions should be noted here as well. If you hold a degree higher than a bachelor’s degree, you may leave out your high school experience. If you have many certifications or championships and you have space in this document, you can create a separate section to highlight them.
See resume example content below.
Presentation makes a difference. As a swimming coach, you teach economy of motion, attention to detail and consistent technique. You can show these in your design by follow some simple guidelines.
A resume template can help you focus on the writing while still allowing you to customize essential elements of your page design.